Silent Reader kindly read the article by a Pakistani Journalist There has been a good deal of talk recently on international cricket returning to Pakistan. Bangladesh has been approached, and their cricket board initially gave provisional consent for a short tour comprising three ODIs. Whether that visit will eventually materialise is still anybody’s guess, but the idea seems unrealistic and inappropriate to say the least. To begin with, we must ask ourselves, what’s the rush? Our cricket administrators seem to have forgotten the significance and scale of what really happened in March 2009, when fanatic militants terrorised the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, triggering the indefinite suspension of international cricket in Pakistan. It was the darkest and saddest of days, not just in Pakistan cricket, but indeed in cricket as a global sport whose international history stretches back nearly a century-and-a-half. The horrific impact of those Lahore events cannot be erased or washed away. As the bus carrying the Sri Lankan team sped away from Liberty Chowk in a desperate attempt to escape gunfire, the terrorists launched a rocket aiming for the fuel tank located in the rear of the bus. Can you imagine what would have happened had that rocket found its mark? This is not something we can minimise or trivialise. A major international team came within an inch of its life during a visit to Pakistan. We cannot even remotely run the risk of that ever happening again. As it is, the Pakistan Cricket Board is not known for its administrative or managerial prowess. They cannot be trusted to even make half-decent arrangements for staging a Test match; how can they be trusted with ensuring a visiting team’s security in our threatening national climate of terror and fear? For the ugly truth is that all corners of Pakistan remain trapped in the grip of terrorism. Suicide bombers keep detonating themselves, and groups of innocent men, women, and children keep getting slaughtered. There is no visible end to this nightmare. Forget peace, there is not even the hope or promise of peace. Trying to drag an international cricket team into this mess is a terrible folly that will only court disaster. Cricket is among the most high-profile activities in Pakistan, keenly followed by a large segment of the population, ever-present in our print and electronic media, and a coveted platform for our national elite to demonstrate their heft and influence. This is exactly the kind of activity that will appeal to terrorists as a big, fat, juicy target. This time they may not miss. What is getting lost in debate is that the absence of international cricket on home soil hasn’t really hurt Pakistan. If anything, our team is enjoying a heartening revival, with a string of creditable performances since the start of the 2010-11 Asian season. We have drawn series against South Africa and West Indies; beaten New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, and Bangladesh; demolished top-ranked England in a Test whitewash; and now lifted the Asia Cup title for only the second time in our history. And while it is true that our players are being forced to travel excessively and will naturally be getting homesick, that kind of schedule is now pretty standard for a life in international cricket. There is no need for the PCB to rush into the return of cricket teams from abroad. Simply put, this is not the kind of devastating liability that it is made out to be. We have the compelling examples of South Africa and Sri Lanka, two frontline cricket nations who endured droughts of international cricket at home lasting many years, with each seeing the seamless resumption of tours once their particular political chapters came to a close. Before that there is also the remarkable example of World War II, when there was no serious cricket anywhere in the world, as international tours as well as domestic competitions remained suspended in all the Test countries, which at the time included England, Australia, South Africa, West Indies, New Zealand, and India. Once the war was over, global cricket resumed as if nothing had happened. Pakistan’s interior ministry has been making glib pronouncements that they will guarantee the security of any visiting international team. A security delegation from Bangladesh even visited Pakistan on our interior ministry’s invitation, and went on to remark that they found the arrangements satisfactory. The ICC, however, is still not fully convinced, and has not approved the travel to Pakistan of ICC’s usual panel of umpires and match officials. All this effort into bringing international cricket back seems such a ridiculous waste. If the PCB is looking to get busy, they should focus on streamlining domestic cricket, developing talent hunt programmes and improving our stadiums, which are all areas that will yield far greater positive impact for Pakistan cricket. It is one thing to makes promises of “guaranteed” security through speeches, slide presentations, and sterile tours of vacant facilities. Actually ensuring that kind of security is entirely a different and far more complicated proposition. Can we really leave it to our government, which has proved incompetent at security? So far, we have failed to protect even our own citizens. Can we really trust ourselves to protect the citizens of others? The future of Pakistan cricket is at stake here. We cannot take this matter lightly. Click This Link